The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-30
FOOTBALLS OF THE FAIRIES.
Strange Rings That Are Supposed to
Have Been Made by People Of the Air.
Places in Indiana and Illinois Where Many Be-
- lieve the Fairies Gather to Dance-What
aScientist Says About the Superstition.

1.-THE human race" said Professor Collect as a
Journal reporter sharpened his pencil to begin
work, "has always sought for the unknown, and,
not content with that. has even reached out for
the unknowabe. If these efforts have resulted
in nothing else, they have given to US some pict
uresque fancies which, were they absent. would
leave the world very prosaic. In nearly every
country there is popular belief in class OF be-
ings distinct from men and women of ordinary
earthly mold. and which usually believed to
inhabit in the air, the water, the hills and caves
region of their own. They not immortas,
but like ourselves, subject to the laws Of death,
| though after more prolonged period OF exist
ence. The hardy, aggressive nations of Europe are
richest in fairy mythology. tits to the Teuton, the
Norseman and the Dane that the English trace
back for the fairy lore that has given to mountain,
| vale, cavern, wildwood and water, their troops
of pixies elves win O. the wisps and waternixies.
| Scotland has her brownies good-natured spirits
that are supposed to perform important services
about the house and farm, even at night attend
| ing to threshing. churning and such matters.
There, too, are her waterkelpies, which. are
spirits not so kindly.
can old woman of Nithsdale, Scotland, has
actually seen fairy procession, or rade,' as the
Scottish folk called it, and she has given q de
scripton. She says: In the night afore Rood
mass I had trysted with neebor lass Scots
mile frae hame to talk anent buying Draws i the
| fair. We had nae sutten lang aneath the haw
| bush till we heard the loud laugh Of fowk rid
| ing, wi the iingling o. brides and the clanking
| o. hoofs We banged up thinking they wad ride
| owre us. We kent nae but it was drunken fowk
/ to ho fair / tho fora Va
| roun' and roun and sumo saw it was the Fairy
| Fowks' Rade We covered down till they
/ passed by. A beam O. light was dancing owre
| them mair bonnie than moonshine. They were
| a. Vice. wee fowk wi green scarfs on, but ane
that rade foremost, and that ane was a good
deal larger than the lave. wi bonnie lang hair
bund about wi strap whilk glinted like stars
| They rade on Draw wee white naigs, Wi unco
| lang swooping tails and names hung wi whistles
that the win played on. This an their tongue
| when they sang was like the SCUM O. a far ava
psalm. Marion an me was In brade lea field
| where they came by us; high hedge o haw
| trees kept them frae gaun through Johnnie
| Corrie's corn. but they lap a. owre 1t like spar
rows, and gallops into green knowe beyont it.
| We gaed in the morning to look at the treddit
corn, but the fent hoof-mark was there, nor
blade broken"
1.-THE Emerald Isle is filled with good peo-
ple,' or the gentry as the Irish call them.
and many wellauthenticated stories
given of various leprechauns' and their
clever ways. The good people, in times past.
were frequently seen in Ireland, and from Nun
ster comes an accurate description Of their dress:
that is, of male fairy. The ordinary attire is
| given black hat, green coat white stockings
and red shoes. This. Of course is of fairies of
nearly hundred years ago. and, nothing is
said of pants they probably then wore knee
breeches whatever the fashion may now be.
| Irish good people, like their more material
countrymen of larger growth, have always been
given credit for the readiest perception and the
keenesr wit. The Irish fairies, stimulated by
mountain dew potheen, more nimbe th an
the troll of the Scandinavian the kobol.. OF
the German. Yet none of these, when they
came immigrants to America. brought any
fairies COLLINS, kobolds, trolls or brownies with
them. They left them all in fatherand, and
doubtless long bewailed the trcksy little friends
they had parted from. Whatever came over in
, the Mayfower. there were certainly no fairies
! there. Had there been some of those pleasant
I creations there certainly would have been NO
such chapter in history as that Of the Salem
witchcraft. Strange as it may appear, the
this country who have done anything
at all to give us any Of this airy population has
been the Dutch, and in this we have nothing as
proof but Knickerbocker legend. Had it not
been for them there would have been in this
country no spirit mythology save that of the red
man. Lo, the poor Indian, saw them in every
| storm. beard them in every wind; but they were
not the light and airy spirits of the European
: To the Indian every singular fountain rock cliff
: or storm beaten hi was peopled with
: spirits. With strange perceptive facultie:
they knew the Lost Rocks and trav
8 e,ed powders like the German walking
stones) as wanderers from another world Witt
+. | them there we're spirits of good, but too many
. spirits OF evil. The Indian treated many such
. localities with great respect. He avoided then
!, in time of darkness, and in time of sorrow mad,
Precipitation with gifts. Their faith was no
" founded on mere belief. According to Their
= stories. and every Indian orator and poet
q q they had seen and felt the demons of the nigh
and storm. While the good spirits were evel
such names ''Sons of the Sky" Daughter
of the Storm" "Chieftains Of the Azure Dome
q the bad spirits were given names that were il
= them selves sufficient to make the dusky sons o
| the forest fearful
= 'Sorrowful enough did the immigrants feel
. doubtless, at having left all their fairies behint
: | them. But after time they began to see il
this new land some indications that led them t.
believe that perhaps there were fairies her
native and to the manor born, OF that in som
way the fairies in fatherland had also sent GU
colonists to America. On the Collect homestead
y in Vermiiou county, this State is grand col
it lection Of fairy rings, varying in diameter from
9 ten to eighty feet. These are get in soil,
y sward OF blue grass, and each has an exac
e circle, beaten track free from vegetation of al
; kinds. Any Bri.on would at once recognize her
IS the footballs OF the fairies. The interior of tn
% circle is sometimes composed of coarser weed
s and grasses while the exterior gives a home I
the richest growth of blue grass and wild flower
8 Of the neiehborhood. In this collection. within
1t space of two acres there not less than fit
IS such rings, and they have been visited by som
K very noted observers.
D. "a common feature of the great Mann farm
u in the northern part Of the same county, is sm
e lar fairy rings Mr. Mann and his family wer
ID late corners from England. and brought grea
a stock of folklore IN their memories of the moth
,, country. They were delighted to find O.
A each side Of the Vermillion river, which passe
n through their farm, continuous ranks of thes
rings, plainly marked in the grassy sod. The
were not so close together as the rings befor
IN neutrality-suspicious. the fairies. that made Their
u were more unsocial. These rings varied fror
n eight to sixty feet in diameter 1t was suppose
from the difference IN size of these rings tina
some fairy had given direction in laying off tn